Financial Crises

Credit-financed markets are inherently unstable. Inevitably, the pattern of payment promises doesn't align with actual ability to pay. What happens then depends on institutions, regulations and management. Today, the credit system is global, and so also is the prospect of financial instability.

We have grown accustomed to regulating financial markets based on imagined, not real markets. Real markets are shaped by and co-evolve with institutional arrangements within two fundamental constraints: Imperfect knowledge and the threat of illiquidity. Read more